Celebrity product lists are usually worthless, and it is worth saying why: they are a photograph of someone’s shelf, not a recommendation with reasoning attached. Somebody with excellent taste tells you what they own, everyone nods, nobody asks whether the thing works.
Pia Baroncini’s shelf is more interesting than most, for a reason that has nothing to do with her taste. She is the founder of the fashion label LPA, serves as CMO of her husband Davide’s cashmere label Ghaia, and co-founded Baroncini Import & Co., a Sicilian olive oil business. She also lives with three dogs who could not be more different from one another: Chi Chi, a Bulldog, Nina, a Pit Bull, and Nutella, a Mastiff.
That is a brachycephalic dog, a short-coated athletic dog, and a giant breed, sharing a house. Any product that survives all three is being tested against genuinely different problems. Skin folds, exercise tolerance, drool volume, and joint load are not the same across those animals, and a product that works for the Mastiff has no obvious claim on the Bulldog.
So we took her six picks and ran them through the only filter that matters: what does it actually do, who is it for, and is there a cheaper version of the same job. Two of them are legitimately good buys. One is a prop, which is fine, as long as you know that going in.
Her descriptions of why she likes them are her own, and we have not put words in her mouth. The verdicts are ours.
The buy-it list
1. Zesty Paws 8-in-1 Bites
$29 | The one with the most going on, for better and worse
Baroncini keeps this on subscription and reports it helps across digestion, skin, heart, and joints, with the added benefit that the dogs read them as treats.
Here is our read. An 8-in-1 chew is a scattergun: glucosamine and chondroitin for joints, a probiotic blend for gut, omega-3 from cod liver oil, CoQ10, MSM, and vitamins. If your dog has one specific problem, a targeted single-ingredient supplement at a therapeutic dose will almost always beat a multivitamin that gives you a modest amount of eight things. Breadth costs you depth.
Where it earns its place is the household exactly like this one: several dogs, several minor issues, nobody wanting to run a pharmacy. And with a Mastiff in the house, joint support is not a wellness indulgence. It is preventive maintenance on a dog whose frame is under real load.
Who it’s for: multi-dog homes, aging dogs, general maintenance. Who should skip it: anyone treating one specific issue. Buy the targeted thing at the right dose instead.
2. Zesty Paws Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil
$37 | The one with the strongest evidence behind it
Also on subscription in her house, credited with turning around bad skin.
This is the pick we would defend hardest, and it is the least glamorous item on the list. Omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA specifically, have the best evidence base of anything in the pet supplement aisle: skin and coat, inflammatory support, joint function. If you were going to buy exactly one supplement for a dog with dull coat or itchy skin, a decent fish oil is the rational choice.
Two practical notes nobody puts on the bottle. Fish oil goes rancid, so buy a size you will finish and keep it cold once opened. And dose by weight, with your vet’s input, because “a squirt” is not a dose and a Mastiff and a Bulldog do not take the same amount.
Who it’s for: almost any dog with skin, coat, or joint issues. Who should skip it: dogs already on a fish-oil-fortified diet, or on any medication affecting clotting. Ask first.
“Fish oil is the one supplement where I think most owners are underdosing rather than overdosing, and the one where cutting corners on quality shows up fastest,” says Dr. Priya Nair. “Look for the NASC seal on the bottle. It is not a government approval and it does not prove the product works, but it means the company passed an independent quality audit, and in a category with essentially no gatekeeping, that is the cheapest filter you have.”
3. Maxbone Aloe & Oatmeal Dog Cleansing Wipes
$25 | The most underrated item here, and it is not close
Baroncini’s reasoning is practical: her dogs refuse their own beds, everyone shares pillows, and Bulldogs are pungent.
She has, almost incidentally, described the single best use case for a cleansing wipe, and it is a health one, not a hygiene one. Brachycephalic dogs have facial skin folds, those folds trap moisture, and trapped moisture in a warm fold is how you get skin fold dermatitis. Wiping a Bulldog’s folds is not fussiness. It is the difference between a clean face and a recurring, smelly, expensive infection.
Any wipe with a gentle formulation will do this. The specific brand matters less than the habit.
Who it’s for: any flat-faced breed, any wrinkly breed, any dog that sleeps in your bed. Who should skip it: nobody, honestly. This is the highest utility-per-dollar item on the list.
The nice-to-have list
4. Ouai Fur Bébé Pet Shampoo
$32 | Good shampoo, priced like a fragrance
Her pitch is that the dogs still smell good a week after a bath, and that is a real, verifiable property. This shampoo comes from a celebrity-stylist-founded haircare brand and it is formulated to hold scent.
The honest verdict: $32 is a lot for dog shampoo, and lingering fragrance is a benefit to you, not to the dog, who would prefer to smell like whatever they rolled in. If your dog has any skin condition, a medicated or hypoallergenic shampoo from your vet beats this on every axis that matters.
Who it’s for: healthy-skinned dogs, and people who care about how their house smells. Who should skip it: dogs with allergies, dermatitis, or sensitive skin.
5. Jax & Bones Fran the Flamingo Rope Dog Toy
The rare toy that survives the living room
Her endorsement is aesthetic, that it looks good on a kitchen floor, and there is no point pretending otherwise. But rope toys have a functional argument too: they are washable, they give some incidental dental friction, and they hold up better than plush for dogs who like to shake and thrash.
The caveat that rope toys always come with: they are not for aggressive shredders. A determined chewer will strip and swallow the fibers, and ingested rope is a genuine obstruction risk. Supervise, and retire the toy when it starts to unravel. With a Pit Bull and a Mastiff in the house, this is not a theoretical warning.
Who it’s for: moderate chewers and tuggers. Who should skip it: power chewers, and anyone who cannot supervise.
The prop
6. Modernbeast Party Beast Crown
$14 | It is a felt crown. Your dog is royalty. That’s the entire product.
We are not going to pretend this does anything. It costs $14, it exists to be photographed, and Baroncini’s justification, that everyone should know your dog is royalty, is the only justification available.
Buy it or don’t. Just do not file it under dog care. And if your dog visibly hates wearing things, take the photo of them not wearing it, which is funnier anyway.
What we cut, and why
The original version of this list included a second Jax & Bones rope toy, Lola the Lobster. It is the same product in a different animal shape, and a list where two of seven slots are the same rope toy in different costumes is not a list, it is a catalog page. One rope toy is a recommendation. Two is a brand placement.
The one label test worth remembering
If you take nothing else from this: the supplement aisle for pets is essentially unregulated compared to human medicine. Nobody is checking, before it hits the shelf, that the bottle contains what the label claims.
The single cheapest filter available to you is the NASC seal, from the National Animal Supplement Council. It appears on both Zesty Paws products above. It is not FDA approval, it does not mean the product works, and it will not save you from a bad ingredient choice. What it means is that the company submitted to an independent quality audit and passed, which puts it ahead of the large number of pet supplements that have never been checked by anybody.
In a category this loosely policed, “somebody actually looked” is a meaningfully high bar.
